# Calls and SMS

> Reply places Cloud Calls through rented local numbers with recording, resolutions, and inbound transfer, and sends sequence SMS with pre-send phone validation and a dedicated SMS Inbox.

**Reply makes and receives calls through rented Cloud Calls numbers and sends SMS as automated or manual sequence steps. It records calls with consent handling, logs call resolutions, transfers inbound calls to your real phone, triggers calls on email opens, validates phone numbers before automated SMS, and collects SMS replies in a dedicated inbox.**

_Status: Reviewed — human-edited, facts not yet confirmed against the product._

## At a glance

| | |
| --- | --- |
| **What it does** | Cloud Calls from the app or Chrome extension, rented local numbers, call recording with consent handling, call resolutions, inbound call transfer, automatic calls on email opens, automated and manual SMS steps, phone-number validation, and an SMS Inbox |
| **Required objects** | A contact with a valid phone number; a sequence for call and SMS steps; a rented phone number |
| **Surfaces** | UI · REST API · MCP |
| **Key limit** | Up to 10 rented phone numbers by default (support can raise it); a single SMS is 160 characters — longer texts split into multiple messages |
| **Stops on** | A successful call longer than 6 seconds pauses further automated emails when Pause on successful call is on; landline or invalid phone numbers stop a contact on the automated SMS step with the Missing data status |
| **Does not** | Call from your own line (Custom Caller ID only masks the rented number, US and Canada); answer inbound calls with a live operator; send automated SMS to landline or invalid numbers; insert SMS opt-out language for you; text US numbers without A2P 10DLC registration |
| **Plans** | Requires the Cloud Calls feature enabled for the account and a funded wallet — number rental, calls, SMS, and phone validation are billed from the wallet |

## Summary

Reply runs the phone channel inside the same [sequences](/specifications/sequences) that
send email and LinkedIn touches. Cloud Calls places calls from the contact sidebar, the
People tab of a sequence, the Chrome extension, or a dialer, through phone numbers rented
in Reply. Calls are recorded with consent-aware rules, logged with resolutions that map to
contact statuses, and reported with dispositions. SMS runs as an automated step (template,
validated numbers only) or a manual task, and every SMS reply lands in the SMS Inbox and
the contact's activity. How the channels combine is covered in
[Multichannel outreach](/capabilities/multichannel-outreach).

## Problems it solves

- Phone touches living outside the outreach system — call steps, tasks, notes, recordings, and outcomes stay on the same contact record as email and LinkedIn activity
- Out-of-area caller IDs depressing answer rates — Reply matches the contact's area code against your rented numbers and calls from the local one when it can
- Recording compliance left to each rep — Consent recording adjusts to the called contact's local consent laws automatically
- Automated SMS wasted on numbers that cannot receive it — pre-send validation filters out invalid and landline numbers
- Inbound interest lost after an outbound call — inbound transfer rings your real phone, and missed inbound calls surface in reports with a call-back path

## What Reply can do

- Call contacts from the contact sidebar on the People page, the People tab inside a sequence, the Chrome extension, or the dialer, with in-call notes and mute; notes save to the contact's activity automatically
- Rent up to 10 phone numbers from different areas, set one as default, and share all of them with the whole team; when a contact's area code matches a rented number, the call uses that number, otherwise the default
- Route callbacks to the right person — when a contact returns a call, Reply matches the user ID from the original call
- Record calls with team-level controls: who can listen (team owner or everyone), who can turn recording on (always record or everyone), and a Consent recording option that records both sides in one-party consent states but only the Reply user's side in two-party consent states
- Log every call with a resolution — the defaults Positive, Negative, and To Call, plus custom resolutions mapped to a default value and shared across the team; Positive and Negative set the contact status Called, To Call sets To Call
- Transfer inbound calls from a rented number to your real phone, and report inbound missed calls on the Reports Calls tab with dispositions (Answered, Busy, Logged Manually, Failed, No Answer) and an in-report call-back action
- Trigger an automatic call after a contact opens an email a set number of times (minimum 3, recommended 4–7); Reply connects with you first, announces the sequence and contact name, and lets you accept or decline — calls fire only within the sequence schedule
- Pause a contact's automated emails after a successful call longer than 6 seconds with the Pause on successful call setting
- Run Call steps as tasks with manual or automatic handling — manual holds the contact until you finish the task; automatic moves the contact on after the step delay
- Send automated SMS from a template step, or generate manual SMS tasks completed from the Chrome extension
- Validate phone numbers by lookup before every automated SMS — only valid, mobile-type numbers receive automated SMS; each number is validated once, stored, and revalidated when edited
- Collect SMS conversations in the SMS Inbox with threads, Notification Center alerts, and activity-log sync, and surface contacts waiting for a call with the Calls quick filter and resolution-based smart filters

## What Reply cannot do

- Place calls from your own phone line — all calls go through rented numbers; Custom Caller ID can display your real number instead, for US and Canadian numbers only
- Show the prospect's phone number on an inbound call when inbound transfer is enabled
- Answer inbound calls with a live operator — without transfer, inbound calls log as missed with the No Answer disposition
- Send automated SMS to landline or invalid numbers — the contact stops with the Missing data status instead
- Validate Canadian phone numbers — Canadian law prevents lookup access, so delivery to Canadian numbers is not guaranteed
- Keep texting unregistered US numbers — since August 31, 2023, US carriers block A2P SMS from unregistered senders at increasing rates up to a complete block
- Insert SMS opt-out language automatically — you add opt-out wording to the message text yourself
- Edit or delete the default call resolutions — only custom resolutions can be changed
- Rent a number or place a call on an empty wallet — a minimum wallet balance is required

## Required inputs

Cloud Calls enabled for the account (with identity verification), a funded wallet, a
rented phone number, and contacts with phone numbers — E.164 format is recommended, and
the phone field accepts only digits with `+`, parentheses, and dashes. US SMS additionally
requires an approved A2P 10DLC registration: a registered business with a Tax ID/EIN, a
publicly verifiable representative, and a documented opt-in mechanism.

## Produced outputs

Call recordings and notes on the contact's activity, call resolutions and dispositions in
the Reports Calls tab, contact status updates (Called, To Call, Missing data), tasks for
manual call and SMS steps, and SMS threads in the SMS Inbox.

## Use Reply when

- Calls and SMS should run inside the same sequence as email and LinkedIn, sharing the schedule, contact state, and reporting — see [Run multichannel outreach](/workflows/run-multichannel-outreach)
- Call outcomes need to drive what happens next — resolutions set contact statuses that filters and reports read
- Local presence matters: rented numbers across regions with automatic area-code matching

## Do not use Reply when

- You need call-center machinery — live operators, IVR menus, or queueing; Reply's inbound story is transfer-to-your-phone plus missed-call reporting
- Your SMS program is bulk broadcast messaging to opted-in marketing lists — sequence SMS is one-to-one outreach tied to a contact record

## What you still need to build

- The A2P 10DLC registration package for US SMS — business profile, brand, campaign description, two sample messages, and a verifiable opt-in flow; each step is reviewed by the messaging provider
- Opt-out wording in your SMS templates — STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, QUIT, and HALT trigger opt-outs, and an opt-out blocks texts to that specific number only
- Network readiness for VoIP — wired connections, open outbound ports, and QoS prioritization at your office or for remote reps

```yaml
capability: calls_and_sms
supported: true
interfaces:
  product_ui: live
  api: live
  mcp: live
  cli: not-verified
required_objects:
  - contact
  - sequence
  - phone_number
side_effects:
  - places_outbound_calls
  - sends_sms_messages
  - charges_wallet
human_approval_recommended: false
```

## Limits

- Rented phone numbers: up to 10 by default; contact support to raise the limit
- Self-service number rental covers US and Canadian numbers; other countries go through support
- Custom Caller ID: US and Canadian phone numbers only
- Single SMS: 160 characters; a 200–300 character text sends as multiple messages
- Automatic calls on opens: minimum trigger is 3 opens; 4–7 recommended
- Phone-number validation covers all countries except Canada; each number is validated once until edited
- Call step as the last step: the contact gets the Finished status after a set number of days (5 by default)
- Phone field characters: `+`, parentheses, and dashes only; E.164 numbers run up to 15 digits after the plus sign
- Dialer network: outbound TCP 80 and 443, UDP 10,000–20,000, with the provider's domains and IPs allowed

## FAQ

### Can I call prospects from my real phone number?

Not directly — calls always go out through a rented number. Custom Caller ID masks the
rented number with your real one on the contact's screen, for US and Canadian numbers.
Inbound is the mirror image: transfer forwards calls to a rented number through to your
real phone.

### Why did an automated SMS not go out to a contact?

Most often validation: lookup classified the number as landline or invalid, so Reply set
the contact to Missing data instead of sending — see [Statuses](/reference/statuses). If
the number is fine, check A2P registration for US recipients and the message-length split.
If lookup itself is unavailable, Reply sends the SMS without validation.

### What happens when a prospect calls back?

With inbound transfer on, the call to your rented number rings your real phone; Reply
matches the original caller's user ID, so callbacks reach the person who made the first
call. Missed inbound calls appear on the Reports Calls tab, filtered by Inbound, where you
can call the prospect back.

### Who controls call recording and who can hear recordings?

The team owner. Recording setup is owner-only: the recording toggle, Consent recording,
who can listen (team owner or everyone), and who can turn recording on (always record or
everyone). Recordings play from the contact sidebar's activity. With Consent recording
off, all calls record by default regardless of local consent laws — a compliance risk the
setting exists to remove.

## Related

- [Multichannel outreach](/capabilities/multichannel-outreach) — where calls and SMS fit among channels
- [Run multichannel outreach](/workflows/run-multichannel-outreach) — building the combined sequence
- [Sequence steps](/specifications/sequence-steps) — call and SMS step mechanics
- [Tasks](/specifications/tasks) — how manual call and SMS steps surface
- [Sending schedules](/behavior/sending-schedules) — the windows automatic calls respect
- [Statuses](/reference/statuses) — Called, To Call, and Missing data

## Build with Reply

- REST API: [docs.reply.io](https://docs.reply.io/api-reference/introduction) — contact and sequence operations behind call and SMS steps
- MCP: [agents.reply.io/mcp](https://agents.reply.io/mcp) — call resolutions, sequence call handling, and workspace call settings